This invention relates to an information delivery apparatus, an information transmitter, an information receiver and an information delivering method to be used for delivering information as transformed into intermediate language information for voicing the text information of electronic mail.
Electronic mail is currently popularly used for delivering texts. The users (subscribers) of electronic mail systems typically utilize personal computers to transmit and receive an electronic mail.
The receiving party of an electronic mail normally confirms the reception by displaying the transmitted text data of the electronic mail on the display screen of his or her personal computer located, for example, in the house. However, there may be occasions where it is desirable that the user who received an electronic mail can confirm the reception of the mail by means of a portable terminal unit.
Furthermore, it may be very convenient if the text of the received electronic mail is voiced by such a portable terminal unit particularly when the user is moving in an automobile or working outdoors.
However, an operation of artificially reading the text of a mail requires a process of language analysis including paragraph analysis and that of voice synthesis. Particularly, a process of language analysis requires a vast amount of dictionary data and grammar data and hence it is believed that a small portable terminal unit can hardly be equipped with hardware and software necessary for carrying out such a process.
For example, a vast amount of dictionary data and grammar data will have to be made available in a process of analyzing text data for the purpose of voice synthesis particularly if no limitations are provided on the text to be analyzed. Additionally, a very complex process of analyzing intonations and accents will be needed to improve the sound quality of voice output and such a process will pose a heavy load on the part of the terminal unit, which by turn will obstruct the efforts for reducing the dimensions and the cost of such terminal units if they are to be made popular.
On the other hand, a service system for delivering information by way of a telecommunication network where the server of the system transforms the text of an electronic mail into a sound signal (digital or analog audio signal) and transmitting the sound signal to the terminal unit of the addressee by way of a telecommunication line may be conceivable. Then, the terminal unit will only have to carry out a predetermined audio processing operation on the received sound signal before it voices the text of the electronic mail so that the load on the part of the terminal unit will be very light.
However, the obtained sound signal transmitted from the server to the user may be required to be compressed in order to reduce the volume of data to be transmitted through the line when the telecommunication network intends to improve the efficiency of data transmission. Then, as a result of the signal compression, the quality of the transmitted audio signal will be degraded considerably to make it impossible to provide a high quality voice service to the user at the terminal unit. If, on the other hand, the signal compression is avoided to maintain the original high voice quality, a long transmission time will be consumed also to a great disadvantage on the part of the user.
In view of the above identified problems, it is therefore the object of the present invention to provide a novel transformed information delivery system that does not pose a heavy load on the receiving terminal unit and, at the same time, can improve the quality of voice information, while it can reduce the transmission time and improve the applicability, usability and efficiency of the system.
According to the invention, the above object is achieved by providing a transformed information delivery system comprising a transmitter arranged at the server of the system and having a first reception means for receiving text information, an intermediate language information generating means for transforming the text information received by the first reception means into intermediate language information for voicing the text information, a transformed information generating means for generating transformed information at least by using intermediate language information and a transmission means for transmitting the transformed information generated by the transformed information generating means and a receiver arranged at a user of the system as user terminal and having a second reception means for receiving the transformed information transmitted from the transmission means, a voice synthesizing means for retrieving at least intermediate language information from the transformed information received by the second reception means, carrying out an operation of voice synthesis by using the intermediate language information and generating voice synthesis information and an output means for outputting the voice synthesis information generated by the voice synthesizing means.
Thus, upon receiving a set of text data, or a text data string, for an electronic mail addressed to a user, or a subscriber, from another user, or another subscriber, to whom service has to be provided by the system, the server transforms the text data into intermediate language information in a form adapted to be used directly for voice synthesis. Then, the transformed information in a predetermined data format of the intermediate language information is transmitted to the terminal unit of the user who is the addressee of the electronic mail. Thus, the amount of data to be transmitted can be remarkably reduced if compared with the amount of data to be transmitted when the sound signal of the text of the electronic mail is transmitted without transformation and, at the same time, the voice output from the terminal unit can be made to be of a high quality owing to the analysis of the text data carried out by the server in a sophisticated way. It may be needless to say that the terminal unit is not required to be equipped with hardware and software for analyzing the text data.
Additionally, not only the intermediate language information to be transmitted as transformed information but also the data on the original text can be transmitted so that the original text is not only voiced but also displayed at the destination terminal unit.
Other objects and advantages of the present invention will become apparent from the following description made by referring to the accompanying drawings that illustrate preferred embodiments of the invention.